“The Consumer Reports survey of 56,000 subscribers established, without a doubt, that MacBooks are more reliable than Windows machines,” Robin Harris reports for ZDNet. “Is it because MacBooks cost more? I asked Consumer Reports.”
“For me, and I suspect for most people who lug them around, notebooks are a tool. And when it doesn’t work it is a problem,” Harris reports. “That’s may be why at tech conferences I attend, MacBooks are way over-represented – typically 40-60 percent – among highly educated and sophisticated users. They are tools and they’re good ones.”
“James McQueen of CR noted in an email response that: ‘[W]e found that reliability isn’t necessarily related to how much money you spend on a laptop. HP’s premium ENVY line is near the bottom, with a 20 percent failure rate, while the company’s less-costly Pavilion line fares better, at 16 percent.’ Okay, so price ≠ reliability,” Harris reports. “Apple insists on quality [from their supply chain] and – this is key – they get it. The Mac’s growing sales in a declining PC market shows that customers do as well.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s so simple, you’d think that even Windows sufferers and Android settlers would be able to understand – heck, even toaster-testers like Consumer Reports get it:
You want an Apple logo on your computing devices, operating systems, and services.
SEE ALSO:
Apple MacBooks again top Consumer Reports’ notebook survey by large margin – December 2, 2015
Apple Macintosh continues to dominate in personal computer customer satisfaction – September 23, 2014
Apple Macintosh continues to dominate in personal computer customer satisfaction – September 17, 2013
Apple sweeps PCWorld Satisfaction Surveys for desktops, notebooks, smartphones, and tablets – December 7, 2011
Apple Mac tops American Customer Satisfaction Index customer satisfaction for 8th consecutive year – September 20, 2011
American Customer Satisfaction Index: Apple Mac dominates for seventh straight year – September 21, 2010
ACSI: Apple Mac again leads Windows PCs by wide margin in consumer satisfaction – August 18, 2009
Study: Apple beats Dell and HP in customer satisfaction – June 26, 2009
Survey: Apple Mac users report highest level of satisfaction by far – February 19, 2009
ChangeWave: Apple Mac holds its corporate share; clearly leads in corp customer satisfaction – December 31, 2008
ACSI: Customer satisfaction rockets for Apple’s Mac; rest of Windows PC industry drops again – August 19, 2008
ChangeWave survey shows big Apple Mac sales, very high Mac OS X Leopard, very low Vista satisfaction – January 17, 2008
Apple Mac desktops, notebooks top PC Magazine’s Annual Reader Satisfaction survey – again – September 18, 2007
Apple’s secret ingredient? A large group of very satisfied customers – April 10, 2007
Apple Mac desktops, notebooks top PC Magazine’s Annual Reader Satisfaction survey – again – August 22, 2006
Apple Computer tops PC satisfaction study – August 15, 2006
Apple Mac desktops, portables top PC Magazine’s 2005 Reader Satisfaction survey – August 24, 2005
Apple continues to lead in customer satisfaction, Dell loses more ground – August 16, 2005
Apple Macintosh leads in personal computer customer satisfaction – August 24, 2004
Apple Macs top PC Magazine’s ‘17th Annual Reader Satisfaction Survey’ – August 10, 2004
I’m astounded that any vendor can stay in business with a 20% failure rate.
-jcr
Apparently you’ve never heard of Packard Bell. They were quite popular, cheap, Windozer boxes. They were unreliable, long story short, they were sued by the attorney general of 19 states for crappy warranty and business practices. Needless to say they’re no longer in business. 🖖😀⌚️
Because they have the components spec’d by design engineer and not the ones spec’d by accounting?
Yup, love those $5,000 hammers and $1,500 toilet seats those wizzard engineers come up with.
chazz15, Trolling again? I thought we talked about that. !!
Engineers deal with specs, supply chain deals with cost. Ps, Apple routinely spends BILLIONS of dollars to pre-buy hardware from vendors to get the best price.
Just saying.
It’s not surprising. Some premium cars are less reliable than cheaper ones. Just because something costs more, it isn’t automatically more reliable. For something to be reliable, it needs quality parts together with good design which doesn’t compromise the reliability.
For instance, if a particular design makes parts run hotter, a different design that runs cooler is likely to be more reliable. Apple pays attention to details like that.
“For instance, if a particular design makes parts run hotter, a different design that runs cooler is likely to be more reliable. Apple pays attention to details like that.”
Which would also include operating systems and things like Flash.
Although: I may not be as sure that Apple pays attention to details like that as well as they used to. They are better than other systems but now need to pay more attention to it on the software side.
Because they are the real deal, where Hardware meets Software as a collaborative whole; in other words, the Apple Inc. hardware engineers work with the Apple Inc. software engineers, who both work as a cohesive whole with the singular objective of creating a preeminent experience for the user!
As Jony Ive and Steve Jobs have famously re-iterated time and time again, Apple Inc. often spend inordinate amounts of time on the smallest of details to ensure the experience is stellar. This was probably stretching resources back in the late nineties when Steve Jobs returned to Apple Computer, but this is probably not a concern today with a ‘small’ buffer of $200 billion in the bank!!
Now they need to STILL work as a team, instead of going the Microsoft direction with inattention to detail with the glitchy OS Mail app, etc. and expect the customer to report on errors for debugging.
And I am beta tester.
A great example of this is the way Apple created new battery tech for flat batteries. PC batteries were AA cells stacked and racked. A huge plastic bin held them. Apple spent the time to make a new tech where the batteries were full and flat and fit nicely inside precision machined bodies.
Even the new Air uses a staggered / layered approach to add more battery inside the same outside case and the case is aluminum so it helps move heat away from the inside with out filling the case with air holes. Just saying.
Even more astounding, I have seen from left to right in any coffee shops or random movies, people and the movie-stars using MacBook with the lighting Apple logo on it.
Apple notebooks have their problems, too, but tend to have model-wide design problems rather than failing component problems.
Original G4 powerbook hinges, iBook G3 logic boards, various models with screen issues, etc.
I’ve gotten burned with various Apple models — including the powerbook hinge, the iBook logic board, the white iMac graphics card overheat and fry (both my wife and I both lost our iMacs to that).
The there were the G5 iMacs with capacitor rot, that one being a supplier issue rather than a design issue. Luckily mine failed after Apple had a logic board replacement program — got mine replaced and put it on craigslist the next day.
Its just a better built machine. Its that simple.
MacBooks are superior quality, no doubt about that. I am writing this on a seven year old MacBook. When I am done I will upgrade it to the latest version of the OS. The only upgrades were extra memory and a bigger HD.
By the way, has anybody at MDN bought a toaster lately? If so, you know that most of them do not do a very good job. Any outfit that can test and rate toasters is doing us all a huge favor.
One more thing, is MDN still using Flash? My browser just blocked it while on the MDN website.
Check out John Siracusa for toaster and toaster oven reviews over at the ATP podcast. 😜
My mom’s 51 year-old GE clothes dryer just went on the fritz.
Talk about reliability and durability!
Oh, and we used our original Mac, and SE model, for 14 years, and it was still running fine when we passed it on to our grandkids.
uhhhh, I worked for GE for about a year. Absolutely true about your mom’s 51 year old dryer……………..but not so much on the new ones.
Sucks to be your grandkids.
They are more reliable because they don’t
make a toy that costs $400 and is made from the “finest” parts available
Duh
As soon as you open the MacBook Pro you can feel the quality build immediately. Open a Windows PC and you feel the cheapness immediately. One has a smooth solid feel. The other is creaky, lifts the machine up and you feel all sorts of stuff flexing around it from the stress. lol
As usual throught the history of Apple:
Apple gear ALWAYS wins on Return On Investment and Total Cost of Ownership. Taking this into account, as well as shelf price, Apple gear is CHEAPER than other manufacturer gear.
School:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_on_investment
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_cost_of_ownership
IOW: If you only take into account shelf price, you LOSE!
Mid 09 2.53 here. 8/500 Mt Lion
Factory refurbished and it still works great. Love the anti glare.